S01.E05: Hope Sinks

[Cranberry]

Quote

While an incident at a nearby school finds all eyes on Gossip Girl, Julien and Zoya team up for Halloween. Audrey panics over bad news, and Obie grows suspicious of Zoya’s new friend.

Original air date: August 5, 2021

[Primal Slayer]

Ahh start ou the episode with the newly formed teacher/student relationship receiving oral in a classroom as students walk by. Teacher guy turned from "I dont fuck my students" to "i fuck my students and threaten them when they try to get in between me fucking my students"

I like how we just ignore what the minions did to Zoya. You'd think that J would be over them after that stint but nope, now she's just on a tour to rehab her image. And in typical minion style, the two are worried about upping their competition even over a gun scandal.

Gossip Girl is national news now? And no one is looking into the account further? lol..but at least the teachers know how ridiculous they are with stalking students.

Didn't take long for Zoya to start her descent towards the dark side and the girl who got into a prestige private school with the help of her mega rich sister feels like she and Obie are too different from another? We've seen nothing but happy times together (mainly in school) and out of the blue they have all these issues.

The two nobodies going as Serena and Blair was....funny but in classic NuGG style, they have zero personality so they seem boring. Sorry everyone in Gossip Girl land but there is no ZERO way that Zoya looks ANYTHING like Chuck Bass. 

[legxleg]

I think Monet vs Julien (even via proxies) seems like much more fun drama than Julien vs Zoya because Monet won't be using kid gloves. If Julien feels threatened enough, maybe she will go to another level and we can have a proper Gossip Girl Mean Girl War. This seems promising.

I don't even understand what this show is trying to do with Max. First it seems like he is going to be in a thruple with Audrey and Aki except it's executed very poorly (if this thruple is an important relationship I think we need to see the moment Audrey decides, eff it I'll sleep with Max, not just find out about the morning after), then it seems like his primary relationship is supposed to be with the Latin teacher (ick to student/teacher relationships), and now it turns out the Latin teacher really is a gross predator after all (a silver lining since I do not like romanticizing crap like that) and Max dumps him pretty quick so...I don't know what is supposed to happen next? I just don't know where they are going with this character and it kind of annoys me. But if they figure it out in a satisfying way then I suppose I'll be impressed. 

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by legxleg

[BingeyKohan]

I am continuing to watch because I like seeing New York spots and catching the references and seeing the clothes (when they're not school uniforms) but eegad there is not a lot of there there. It's really hard to accept Kristen Bell as the voice of the narrator when we know full well it's Tavi or the other teacher? I get that GG is a 'persona' that they feel is separate from their true selves but it just doesn't add the same propulsive intrigue if you know all along who's writing her lines.

Jordan Alexander is very appealing but Julien is SO boring. Really everyone is I guess I just call her out specifically because we're meant to think she's an It girl on the wane. 

[peachmangosteen]

I'm still enjoying this. I don't think the original is anything special though (outside of the Dan/Blair arc) so maybe that's why.

[Primal Slayer]

1 hour ago, peachmangosteen said:

I'm still enjoying this. I don't think the original is anything special though (outside of the Dan/Blair arc) so maybe that's why.

It definitely isnt special per say but it had more heart and this really makes the OG characters feel like actual teenagers lol.

It was nice to see Nelly Yuki again and see where she is in life, though it would've been nice if we got to see her without the glasses covering half her face.

[Ms Blue Jay]

3 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

I'm still enjoying this. I don't think the original is anything special though (outside of the Dan/Blair arc) so maybe that's why.

LOL, that really explains why you like this so much.

Original Gossip Girl Seasons 1 and 2 are amazing in my book.  But I love Dan and Blair too.

[peachmangosteen]

Yea I mean the original is not good either imo lol so this feels like more of them same to me.

[zenithwit]

I think the main issue with this show is they do a lot of telling us without showing us.  For example, they tell us that GG is covering multiple schools but only show us posts about Julien and Zoya.  (How hard would it have been to add a 10 second foreshadowing clip of the teachers posting whatever that eventually led to the gun incident?) 

They tell us that Zoya thinks Obie might be a little fake in his activism but have they showed us any hints of this?  I can't think of any but then again I'm not paying that close attention (would love to know if there are any examples i missed).

They tell us that Julien's minions need Julien to be on top for their careers but they don't give us any further background information or context to explain that.  Maybe their families aren't as wealthy as Julien's or Obie's so they will need to work to maintain their lifestyle?  Or maybe they just come from a family of PR agents?

One thing I did like was the show confirming that the creepy teacher is indeed a predator.  I really thought the show was going to try to convince us that Max is the aggressor and the teacher was the victim.  So I liked the little misdirection showing how the teacher took advantage of Max's ego and vulnerable state.  (And that in school blowjob was completely gross.  I actually felt really sad for Max in that moment).

But unfortunately, I don't think the teacher will be exposed anytime soon.  GG has the power but he knows their real identity so I think he's protected... for now.

On a side note: i kinda don't care about Audrey and her mom. Is that bad?

And lastly, unpopular opinion: i like Aki.

Edited August 6, 2021 by zenithwit

[peachmangosteen]

7 hours ago, zenithwit said:

And lastly, unpopular opinion: i like Aki.

I haven't liked him and I've thought the actor was embarrassingly bad, but I liked him a lot and this ep. The actor was noticeably better, too.

Audrey had been my fave but she was really insufferable in this ep. I understand her frustrations with her mom but for fuck's sake the woman is going through some shit so maybe have a tad bit of compassion lol.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I love Audrey, but I don't like her mother.  And Laura Benanti looks NOTHING like Audrey.  At least they could have tried.

Max's biological father has beautiful bone structure like he does.  Julien and Zoya's fathers are believeable too.  But Audrey's mother is just so out of place.

I hate Blair's mother too, so it's not surprising!

Edited August 6, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[zenithwit]

13 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

Audrey had been my fave but she was really insufferable in this ep. I understand her frustrations with her mom but for fuck's sake the woman is going through some shit so maybe have a tad bit of compassion lol.

Yeah, it's hard to have that much sympathy when the potential situation is Audrey moving 2 hours away to live on a 5 acre estate.  I get that it really sucks to switch schools when you are in high school and I think most parents try to avoid that but sometimes it's just not avoidable.  Considering Audrey's mom is going through a divorce and her business tanked, she probably can't financially afford both properties.  And it's understandable that she would want to sell the more expensive property.

Edited August 7, 2021 by zenithwit

[BaskingsharkGTX]

So just to get this straight;

The parents and teachers at this school are freaking out OMG SO MUCH about Gossip Girl that one of the 'rents hires Black Cube to come in and figure out who's behind it, the Idiot Teachers frame their friend and get her fired, Black Cube goes home - and then GG continues on but now the parents and faculty just admit defeat and let it continue? Did Black Cube at least give them a refund?

I enjoyed Audrey and her mom screaming at each other. I grew up around some people like this and them screaming "Fuck you!" and "I hate you!" at each other in the heat of the moment was very... real.

So much for Mr. I Don't Fuck My Students (And They Look Five Years Older Than Me). 

Zoya is so annoying and holier-than-thou and not interesting. I don't blame Monet for being mad at her messing up their setup. I don't think this show has a clue what to do with Z and J, they are all over the place and their relationship is so limp. It has zero conflict and, seemingly, nowhere to go that'll create any sort of interesting drama.

Edited August 7, 2021 by BaskingsharkGTX

[zenithwit]

2 hours ago, BaskingsharkGTX said:

The parents and teachers at this school are freaking out OMG SO MUCH about Gossip Girl that one of the 'rents hires Black Cube to come in and figure out who's behind it, the Idiot Teachers frame their friend and get her fired, Black Cube goes home - and then GG continues on but now the parents and faculty just admit defeat and let it continue? Did Black Cube at least give them a refund?

Wouldn't it be feasible that the school/parents think that the teacher who was fired is still the one behind GG?  From their point of view, just because they fired her doesn't stop the GG account from continuing to post/exist (most of their leads are from the students).  Not sure what it would take to suspend the account.  An appeal to Instagram?

Though that does beg the question about why the school or parents didn't give up the fired teacher's name to whoever after the gun incident.  And it still doesn't make sense why the fired teacher is protecting the others.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

57 minutes ago, zenithwit said:

And it still doesn't make sense why the fired teacher is protecting the others.

IIRC she doesn't know they screwed her over. They turned off the firewall when she was posting so it was traced to her phone but she didn't know they did that (or something). That explains why she hasn't ratted them out so far, but if GG was legit linked to the gun thing and Police interviewed her, she'd almost certainly have to give them up.

Also I can't believe the parents at this school would just let her walk away after she was outed as GG. They'd likely want to sue her for invading their kids' privacy or whatever, and then the truth would have to come out. People like this tend not to be very forgiving. At the school I went to, one mom tried to get another mom's racehorse trainer deported because the racehorse that mom owned beat the racehorse she owned in a race.

  

Edited August 7, 2021 by BaskingsharkGTX

[TeeVee329]

I never would have pegged Max as naïve so I don't know why he was so shocked that Rafa has a history of bedding his students.  A guy who's at this inappropriate rodeo for the first time wouldn't be getting blown at school with the door of his classroom wide f-ing open.  I will say, though, even though you don't really see anything, I thought that shot of Max on his knees and audibly swallowing was kinda risqué.

Interesting that they've now differentiated a bit between Luna and Monet.  I actually like this calibration for Luna, that she's a scheming mean girl, but she does feel loyalty to her friends and isn't completely inflexible.

The Blair/Serena analogs from the other school kinda reminded me of the original series' Minis, who were much more fun as meta gloss goes.  The Nelly Yuki appearance did nothing for me.

I did chuckle at Audrey's Connecticut burn and Julien/Luna/Monet all nodding sagely, heh.

That group hug at the end did not feel earned at all.

[BaskingsharkGTX]

12 hours ago, TeeVee329 said:

I actually like this calibration for Luna, that she's a scheming mean girl, but she does feel loyalty to her friends and isn't completely inflexible.

She also mentioned that she already has an agent so she had nothing to gain by rocking the boat.

[txhorns79]

On 8/7/2021 at 8:08 PM, TeeVee329 said:

I never would have pegged Max as naïve so I don't know why he was so shocked that Rafa has a history of bedding his students.  A guy who's at this inappropriate rodeo for the first time wouldn't be getting blown at school with the door of his classroom wide f-ing open.  I will say, though, even though you don't really see anything, I thought that shot of Max on his knees and audibly swallowing was kinda risqué.

I wish the show didn't treat the storyline like it was edgy and sexy.  In reality, it was about an emotionally damaged student and his sexual predator teacher.   

 

On 8/7/2021 at 2:39 PM, BaskingsharkGTX said:

I don't think this show has a clue what to do with Z and J, they are all over the place and their relationship is so limp. It has zero conflict and, seemingly, nowhere to go that'll create any sort of interesting drama.

I agree.  I feel like they also forget that Zoya is supposed to be substantially younger than the other clique members.  Even if Julien wants her around, surely Zoya has made at least some friends her own age by this point?   

[peachmangosteen]

10 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Even if Julien wants her around, surely Zoya has made at least some friends her own age by this point?   

How long has Zoya been there? I can't tell how much time has supposed to have passed lol.

[paulvdb]

And how much time has she spent with people who are not her sister or her sister's friends? I would not be surprised if she hasn't hung out with anyone else at school.

[txhorns79]

2 hours ago, peachmangosteen said:

How long has Zoya been there? I can't tell how much time has supposed to have passed lol.

Maybe a month or two?  That's only a guess.  I was thinking if she started at the beginning of the term, and it's now Halloween, that would be the timeline.

[Egg McMuffin]

Nellyuki! Now if only Poppy Lifton would reappear, my life would be complete.